Death With Wings
by Zero Tsubasa no Kami
Summary: A ghostly cry from Van draws Hitomi, age 22, back to Gaea. Upon arrival it appears as if Van had died...
1. Into the Light

~Death With Wings~  
  
Chapter 1:  
Into the Light  
  
With her green eyes gazing out over her new swampland home, 22 year old Hitomi Kanzaki watched with growing excitement about her work. She was a writer, doing her first book on the wild wetness of the Everglades.  
  
Japan had turned into a warzone. She moved to the wetlands of Florida to avoid being killed, and to get a first hand look at the American wilderness. Flying overhead in a plane, she had found it dull, but up-close, this park was blooming in the recovery of Spring.  
  
She thought of her friends. Amano-sempai and Yukari were married and living in France. Van and the others were in the sky. How she missed them so! Her next book was sure to be a novel of Gaean adventures.  
  
Then she saw a sudden spark at the far shore. It shone briefly for a moment before vanishing. Hitomi hopped into her boat and motored to the other side. She found nothing. Nothing that wasn't supposed to be there, anyway.  
  
She turned back to her boat, which she had named First Angel. "Hitomi...."  
  
She jumped. Whipped her head around but saw nothing. Someone had touched her arm and said her name. 'But I'm in America,' she told herself, 'I don't know anyone here.'  
  
"Hitomi, help me....." She felt a pair of death-cold hands reach around her waist. Hitomi turned in time to see the fading image of him.  
  
"Van?"  
  
  
That was not a dream. It was a vision. Hitomi knew what she must do. An hour later. Hitomi Kanzaki, former track star, drama queen, and psychic of the Mystic Moon, was on a plane back to her first home: Tokyo.  



	2. Sora

~Death With Wings~  
  
Chapter 2:  
Sora  
  
Memories flooded her head as she ran through the streets of Tokyo. Talking with friends here. Studying together there.  
  
As she made her way to her school, she gasped in horror. Rubble and red was everywhere. A thick, great saddness came over her. She headed toward the track. Back to where it all started when a boy and a dragon fell out of the sky.  
  
A new cloud of fresher memories invaded, sweeping away the old ones. Who knows how long she stood there? Just staring at the great big blue sky? 'How could something so grand hang over someplace where death was the norm?  
  
And as she looked, a single white feather floated gently to her feet.  



	3. Into Gaea

~Death With Wings~  
  
Chapter 3:  
Into Gaea  
  
Upon touching it, a blue beam cast out from the pendant around another 22 year-old's neck. The new ray of hope shattered the gloominess of the remnants of the Zaibach. The strand of light reached all the way to the Mystic Moon, to Hitomi's hands. Pulling her and the feather to Gaea.  
  
'I'm going home at last!' Hitomi thought. Millerna, Dryden, Allen, Meruru, Celena, and Van! She would see them again! The beam dropped her off in Fanelia.  
  
She looked in amazement at the once burnt country. It looked fantastic now. The castle was back to normal, the buildings stood proudly again. She watched the people doing their shopping and pulling their kids along. She watched butterflies flutter around a sale of flowers. She walked to a park bench to sit but as soon as she touched it, it melted away and she found herself in another room. "What?"  



	4. I Don't Need a Promise

~Death With Wings~  
  
Chapter 4:  
I Don't Need a Promise  
  
Her new surroundings were dark. There was a single white light cast upon a miniture model of the Vione. As she moved closer to it, she could discern six models of Draconians revolving around it. She recognized three. Varie, Folken, and Van. They were made of green stone, which she guested to be dragu-energist. As the light reflected off the Vione and the winged ones, it cast an erie glow across the room. As the light changed here and there, she could make out carvings of guymelefs over the walls. Looking around some more, she found the Escaflowne. She reached out to touch it but stumbled over something it the dark. Something alive!  
  
"Meow?" 'Meruru?' Hitomi thought.  
  
"Meruru?"  
  
"HITOMI!" Meruru hugged her friend, nearly choking her with her great cat-strength. "HITOMI! YOU'RE BACK!!!"  
  
"Meruru! Where are we?" She looked over the odd place again.  
  
"You are in the Temple of the Dead. Celena built it to honor the dead. I mean, we are not dead, but the Dragon Slayers," she pointed to the Vione, "and Van, Folken, Varie, Andiam, Caalia, and Nagouyu, they're all dead."  
  
"Van is dead?" Hitomi asked with fear.  
  
"I'm sorry, Hitomi. There is a new danger on the planet. She took Van and killed him."  
  
'Van! Van, dead?' She thought back to what had happened before. Van had asked for help. She was too late.  
  
"Hitomi, please don't cry. I think I cried enough for the world."  
  
"I promise I won't."  
  
"I don't need a promise. You are a strong person, Hitomi."  



	5. Perfect World

Perfect World (This chp. is a bit longer than usual)  
  
"Hitomi come hear." Meruru said.  
  
"Uh.. okay. She followed Meruru to the far end of the room. She gasped as she saw a broken carving of a face on the wall. Meruru ran her fingers over the face.  
  
"Hitomi, before Varie died, she said if all of them died, the Wing Goddess could bring them back to life. She told me how."  
  
"And the Wing Goddess is.. who?"  
  
"I never told you but when you weren't there, Van called you the Tsubasa no Kami. We just have to trust him right?" She nodded her head.  
  
"So how do I do that?"  
  
Meruru pointed to the face. "That's the key. Stand right..here." She pointed to a section of the floor. Hitomi stood there. "Now hold out your arms." As soon as she did, she felt things strapping her arm to the wall. A ghostly glow came around her figure, blocking all vision and sound.  
  
She felt something rough cover her and realized it was the face. For the second the stone passed over her, she could see Meruru on the floor with a look of fear on her face. She heard another sliding sound and watched as another stone half covered her. "Meruru!" she yelled. Then the world went black.  
  
  
  
She felt a cool breeze blow across her face. Hitomi opened her eyes and looked around. 'I must be dead,' she thought.  
  
"Hitomi." She truned to where the voice came from. Folken Fanel was standing there, next to her, in the sky.  



End file.
